1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to tow rope handles used in various sporting activities in which a person is pulled at the end of a rope.
2. Prior Art
In various sports in which a person is towed behind a watercraft, such as water skiing, wakeboarding, knee boarding and similar sports, the person must typically hold onto a special handle attached to the end of a rope, cable, or other such flexible connection to the tow vehicle. Similar handles are used for sports in which a participant is towed over snow or dry land, or when a participant is towed by a wind-borne kite or parachute-like device. The tow handles used for all of these types of sports bear a striking similarity, in that they are usually comprised of a rigid bar attached to a main towline by means of a V-shaped bridle. A typical towed-sports handle assembly 40 is comprised of a tow handle cross bar 41 attached to two side ropes 42 which converge to a splice knot 43 joining them to a single mainline 44 (FIG. 2). This common configuration allows an opening for the participant to grip the tow handle with one or both hands while maintaining a direct, in-line link to the towing force.
Unfortunately this common V-shaped bridle presents a constant danger to the participant, in that it creates an easy opening into which the participant can accidentally engage a limb during a fall. Historically, the forward momentum of the towing force combined with the trapping nature of such accidental engagement has often resulted in serious injury or death to the participant. Annual safety reports worldwide suggest that such accidents occur as frequently as several dozen times per year, resulting in injuries serious enough to require a visit to an Emergency Room.
Prior to the present invention there has been no device patented that resolves or successfully addresses this danger. There have been some homemade, non-patented attempts that are known to have been tried, and there have been various informal suggestions proposed among waterskiers and participants in other towed sports.
Chief among these is the addition of a piece of fabric being used to cover some portion of the opening of towed-sports handle assemblies. For example, one skier in California reportedly fabricated a triangular canvas sleeve 10 (FIG. 1) designed to fit over the V-shaped area of the handle assembly, thereby enclosing a portion of the dangerous opening. Another skier reportedly sewed a fabric panel directly to the side ropes of the bridle, accomplishing a similar result. There are also apocryphal accounts of skiers wrapping duct tape across the handle opening, or attaching vinyl sheeting material in place. All of these solutions, while seeming adequate in theory, fail in actual use. Commonly, the broad surface-like nature of such devices becomes, effectively, a rudder in the water and a sail in the air. Typically the forces involved in the towed sport result in a premature failure of such homespun devices, rendering them useless. Additionally, when involved in the types of falls that can result in body-part-through-handle injuries, such soft flexible sheets can act as a sort of funnel, guiding the skier's arm (for example) directly into the dangerous opening.
Another device proposed by a skiers is a standard V-shaped handle assembly with an additional spliced-in cross rope 21 (FIG. 2) permanently connected between the two side ropes, parallel to handle cross bar 41, leaving enough space for the skier's hands to grasp the handle. The purpose of this additional rope piece is to prevent a participant's head from entering the handle opening, but it does nothing to address the more common danger of accidentally engaging other body parts, such as the participant's arm. Indeed, this device may well be more dangerous than no safety device at all, in that the additional rope piece can easily create a more serious entanglement when the skier does engage a hand or arm into the opening during a fall.